Neichizuu Jiang Shi
by WFROSE
Summary: In the tradition of 'Little Pretty Biohazard', 'Pain in the Back', 'Innocence', and 'Juchan', comes... well, something else in that Halloween tradition...
1. Chapter 1

Niechizuu Ziang Shi

"Thank Ryoga too," Ranma added, hopping down from the top of the lockers she was perched on.

"Oh, but..." Akane started, before having her question asked for her by Yuka and Sayuri

"Now that you mentioned it, what happened to him?"

Ranma felt obligated to mention the idiot was actually the pig in Akane's arms, having selflessly forgotten about his curse to jump in and save the short haired girl from drowning to death at the end of their ice skating match. Before the pigtailed girl could come up with an explanation, a faint knocking came from the wall next to her.

"WHAT THE?" Ranma proclaimed, leaping away as the 'faint knock' collapsed the wall inwards towards her.

The wall shattered inwards in a spectacular spray of concrete and wood, revealing a young woman with flowing white hair and seemly soft, peach fuzz like pale green skin, garbed a Chinese pantsuit with an overlaying leather brassiere that one suspected as armor.

"Ranma..." the girl's voice croaked with a malice and undisputable hatred, "You, I kill."

Despite the reactions of the other girls around her, Ranma remained non-plussed, perhaps even unamused. "Shampoo, what are you doing in Japan?" The pigtailed girl enquired, before slumping into the chair that was behind her.

"KILL" she repeated, presuming the red headed Japanese girl had trouble understanding her, she wasn't very proficient in Japanese, after all. And as many people who have problems communicating, she believed complimenting her statement with a visual reference was necessary.

Despite her courtesy, Ranma understood her well enough, as she pivoted her chair on one leg, turning her body away from the blow with the colorful, mace-like instrument of destruction, and stuck her leg out in the path of the obviously foreign girl with the peculiar bodily hair issue.

Ranma sighed, looking towards the heavens in a 'Why me?" expression, as the other girl fell flat on her face, before placing her foot on the small of the girl's back. "You know? I thought this woulda got old back in China."

"Y-You know her?" Akane enquired, watching the girl struggle under Ranma's foot, "And why are her feet bound like that?"

"Long story," Ranma commented, seeming to not have to put much effort in keeping the girl on the ground.

"Well, it's not like we have anything better to do than find out why she wants to pummel you into oblivion, Ranma," Akane stated, showing a slight concern for the girl.

Ranma sighed, knowing she would have to explain sooner or later, "Well, the gist of the story is, Shampoo here is dead."

"Um..." Sayuri began, "She looks rather lively to me."

"Well, yes, can you not interrupt me?" Ranma reprimanded, "I was just getting to that part."

"Sorry."

* * *

Ranma kept her foot in the air, as she watched her opponent sail off the challenge log; for a minute there, she was afraid that there would actually be a challenge to deal with. "Well, guess the prize is as good as mine, huh?"

"He is won!" Ranma and Genma's Chinese guide proclaimed, making it sound as if it weren't the best of things to do. The ref raised Ranma's hand in victory, just as Shampoo pulled herself off the ground, and approached the girl who defeated her...

* * *

"So she chased you all over China after giving you this 'Kiss of Death' huh?" Akane questioned, looking down at the girl who finally ceased her struggles after realizing how futile it was to fight her position.

"Yeah, and when they say 'to the very ends of the earth', they mean it... and then some..."

"And then some?" Yuka encouraged Ranma to continue, enrapped with the story.

* * *

"Damn it, Shampoo!" Ranma shouted, diving out of the way of Shampoo's monk spade, "I'm sorry already!"

"YOU I KILL!" Shampoo insisted, as she recovered her missed swing. Ranma rolled to standing, and found himself looking down the steep mountain they were fighting alongside. Her coward of a father had abandoned Ranma, telling him she needs to face his challenges on his own to be a true man, leaving Ranma to contend with a pride wounded and homicidal backwards hick.

Without too much time after recovering, Ranma dodged to the side away from the cliff to avoid the horizontal slash from Shampoo's staff weapon. With an ax kick, the redhead rent it into two halves. Shampoo stumbled, finding her footing near the edge, and beginning to slide off.

With panic in her eyes, the Chinese girl began to swim her arms in attempt to keep from going over the edge, before Ranma reached forward, and harshly pull her back onto the trail to the other side of her, away from the cliff. Desperately clasping onto Ranma, Shampoo trembled, realizing how close she had come to her demise.

"Hey, you okay?"

Shampoo blinked, realizing that the redhead was hugging her, and stepped away. With a sniffle as she attempted to refrain from tears, Shampoo nodded, while willing herself to stop trembling.

"Um.." Ranma wasn't sure how to handle the girl, knowing for one, she wanted her dead, and two, she was emotionally distraught, "Well, it's not like it did happen, I caught ya before you fell, so don't cry, alright?"

Shampoo calmed herself, giving a slight smile, signifying that she was feeling better. Ranma began to return the smile, and chuckled slightly. Shampoo began to feel the infectious laughter, and joined in as Ranma's own laughter picked up.

"DIE!"

Ranma just barely managed to duck the mace that had been heading towards her head. Shampoo, having heavily committed to the swing in an attempt to quickly behead the other girl, was thrown off balance, pulled over the other girl, and sent sailing over the edge of the trail.

"DAMN IT, SHAMPOO!!!"

* * *

Akane, Yuka, Sayuri, and P-chan all blinked, before looking down at the fuming foreign girl.

"That..."

"Wasn't very bright."

"Oink."

Akane rubbed her temples, trying to dismiss the stupidity of the apparent over endowed bimbo, "So, she was even more angry at you for falling off the cliff, and came after you even more determined after she healed, I guess?"

"Ah, heh... she didn't survive..."

* * *

"So, you'll return her to her village for us?" Ranma enquired to the Taoist monk.

The man nodded, and looked back at the body they had strapped to a bamboo rod, "Yes, it our sacred duty to return miss to home for burial. Spirit become homesick if not done so, and wreak havoc in attempt to return."

"Um... I guess," Ranma responded, not believing in ghost stories...

* * *

"What a surprise it was for me to find her, a week later, hopping after me and shouting 'YOU I KILL!" Ranma finished, "But, really, she didn't seem as terrifying as before..."

"You have an undead Chinese warrior after you, and that's not terrifying?" Akane asked, incredulously.

"Well, I guess death tends to take a certain edge from your skill," Ranma mused, "Also, her bound feet don't help much."

"So, what are you going to do about her?" Akane asked, "She'll just start attacking you as soon as you let her up!"

"Well, I guess I gotta do something with her until I can get in contact with some monks or something willing to take her home..." Ranma considered, before her eyes lit up, "Hey, I KNOW!"

With that, she picked up Shampoo's bound ankles, and dragged her to the lockers. Opening one of them, she stuffed Shampoo in one, hanging her upside down by her ankles on the clothes hook inside, and closed it. The three other girls and a little black piglet looked on in shock, as Ranma scrawled a messy note saying, "Wild animal, do not open", and taped it to the door, "There, she should be good until later... uh, anyone got a lock I can use, just in case people can't read the note?"

"I don't think many people will be able to read your writing," Sayuri commented with a hooded gaze.

"You can't do that!" Akane proclaimed, "That's inhumane!"

"Am I supposed to have sympathy for some undead, uncute chick who has followed me from beyond China and the grave to kill me?" Ranma enquired, unmoved by the raven haired girl's proclamation. "Come on, let's get home, I wanna get to supper before Pops gets dibs on my grub!"

As Ranma walked out the locker room, Akane hesitated, before turning to look at the locker that held the undead girl captive, and began to hear the faint sound of someone sniffling, "Is... is she crying?"

Approaching the locker, Akane listened, and confirmed the girl inside was near sobbing. Heartbroken, she opened the locker, and gently lowed the girl out of it, "There now, I won't leave you here like that brute Ranma would."

Ranma stepped back in to find out what was taking Akane so long, and spotted the scene, "Uh, Akane, what are you doing?"

"We can't just leave her like this, Ranma! It isn't right!" Akane insisted, earning a nod from P-Chan. More than likely P-chan supported freeing Shampoo for other motives; any enemy of Ranma's on the loose and blood lusting was someone Ryoga owed a drink to.

"And I guess the constant attempts to murder me are fine and dandy?" Ranma countered.

"Well, it's your fault anyways!"

"Mine! She started it!"

Akane got up in Ranma's face, "She wouldn't have if you had just left her food alone!"

"I was hungry!"

"Like that's any excuse," Akane retorted, "Besides, you said yourself she isn't any real challenge like she is, I would think Mr. Hotshot martial artist would be able to defend herself against a non-threat like her! Just look at her!" Akane pointed to the girl on the ground, being hugged by both Yuka and Sayuri.

"Aww, she's so cute!" both girls proclaimed, having their arms wrapped around the dead pouting girl; she was like some sort of anti-living plushy, what with her greenish peach fuzzed skin.

"Aw Jeez," Ranma grumbled, "Look, she's none of my concern, but if you feel that strongly about it, you look after her, alright!"

"It's not like she's some sort of pet, Ranma!" Akane retorted, bending down to help Shampoo up.


	2. Chapter 2

Niechizuu Ziang Shi

"Can I keep her, pleeeeaaaasssseeee?"

"I thought you said she wasn't a pet," Ranma quipped with a half lidded gaze, as she watched Akane bombard her father with the full artillery of innocent-daddy-loves-his-daughter-dearest weaponry; complete with the puppy dog eyes, the clasped hands, and the almost whining but definitely pleading voice that is two octaves higher than normal.

"Er, well, that is," Soun hemmed and hawed, before considering something, "Did you not already find yourself a pet? Whatever happened to P-chan?" The pig in question looked up from Akane's lap, also interested in the answer.

"Mr. Tendou, what she wants ain't exactly 'pet' material," Ranma elaborated, "but more of an undead nuisance."

"Hush, you" Akane quickly retorted, "She wouldn't be in this predicament if not for you!"

"What? It's not like I ASKED her to stumble over me and off the cliff!"

"Would it have killed you to take at least ONE shot for her sake?"

"Yes, yes it would you uncute, brick shaped, tomboy!"

"YOU TAKE THAT BACK, YOU JERK!"

"BWEE! Grrrrrrr."

"YEAH? WHY DON'T YOU MAKE ME?"

"SHAMPOO!"

"Wha-WAIT!" Ranma dove to the side, just before he was dive bombed by a pale green skinned, white haired girl holding twin bonbori.

"KILL!"

"Er... who is this?" Soun enquired, staring at the newcomer that was glaring at the pigtailed girl that hid behind the Saotome patriarch.

"Jeez, Akane, she almost came close enough to hit me!" Ranma grumbled.

"Serves you right, jerk."

"Oink!" P-Chan nodded, though more than disappointed at the serious half a foot miss by the undead girl.

"Shampoo kill Ranma!" the girl insisted, pointing one of her bonbori at the redhead.

Gotten over the surprise shock, Ranma was now bored with her presence, "Yeah, yeah, you've been saying that for weeks, you rotting carc-"

"Don't insult Shampoo!" Akane demanded, before handing the undead girl back one of her bonboris, "You know? Those things are pretty good. Think I can get a pair?"

"Both of you... uncute... and your little pig, too."

"Um, Akane dear..."

"Oh!" The youngest Tendou remembered her manners, "Daddy, this is Shampoo! Is it okay that she stay with us until she can return home?"

"Well, I don't know if we are capable of handling another guest," Soun began to argue, watching the panda in the background frantically signing how inconvenient it would be for his and Ranma's lifespans. "As it is, we are pressed for bedding at the moment, and the cost to feed another mouth-"

"Is out of the question," Nabiki interjected, sitting next to her younger sister, as Kasumi brought in a tray of tea and snacks, "With the two black holes of anything edible within range living under this roof, we are strapped for cash as it is. Daddy, why don't you just get a regular job?"

"Um... as you can see, I don't believe it would be possible with our conditions."

Nabiki merely rolled her eyes at how her father sidestepped her question, as Akane started back up her argument, "She can use my sleeping bag. And besides that, I bet she doesn't eat much at all," Akane turned to Shampoo, who was still glaring at Ranma, "Do you?"

"Shampoo no eat."

"See, light eater!"

"You could almost say she's wasting away..." Nabiki commented with a smirk.

"Nabiki, that wasn't very nice!" Kasumi admonished, being concerned for their newest guest's feelings.

"Oh, come on, sis, do you honestly believe that the human pogo here is really dead?"

"As-" whiff "-real-" shwoosh "-as my-" swish "-curseQUIT THAT!" Ranma firmly planted her foot in Shampoo's face, ceasing the undead girl's attack abruptly.

"And here I thought you didn't hit girls," Nabiki drolled, gaining slightly more than mild amusement from the scene before her.

"She's dead, she's trying to kill me, she's made herself an exception to that rule," Ranma stated, keeping her foot firm against Shampoo's face, "Hey, Kasumi, could you get me a handful of uncooked rice, please?"

"Um... of course, I guess," with that, the eldest Tendou sister went back into the kitchen.

"Not that this isn't entertaining with all the hocus pocus, but the fact that she is trying to bludgeon Ranma is a very real fact," Nabiki pointed out, "Now, the two of you alone make the cost of repairs on this house skyrocket out of budget, with her here we'll be living in a Swiss cheese shack in no time."

"Thanks Kasumi," Ranma took the cup of rice from Kasumi, "Well, let's just say she's easily distracted..." With that, Ranma tossed the cup of rice to the side, almost causing Kasumi to scream in terror.

Shampoo immediately stopped her assault on Ranma, and pulled her face away to look at all the rice on the floor. With a glare even more heated than she had ever given Ranma, she attempted to use said glare to sear the flesh from Ranma's bones... or at least melt off that maddening, crap eating grin plastered across her nemesis's face. She looked back to the rice on the floor, than to Ranma, then back to the rice, then to the still grinning Ranma. Finally, in rapid Mandarin, she hopped over to the rice, knelt, and started picking up each piece of rice.

"Uh, what was that all about?" Akane asked.

"Well, I was pretty sure Shampoo was dead and all, I checked her pulse after all, and the hole from the tree branch through her stomach was pretty telling, even if you didn't include her intestines being wrapped around it like-"

"DETAILS AREN'T NECESSARY!" all three Tendou sisters shouted, causing Ranma, Soun, and Shampoo to jump. With a whimper, Shampoo once again began to pick up the rice she just dropped

"Girls..." Ranma grumbled, "Anyways, when she came back after me, I thought it would be best to figure out how she did it. Turns out she's a jiang shi."

"Jiang Shi?"

"Isn't that the ancient Chinese art of arranging space to achieve harmony and balance?" Kasumi enquired

"That's Feng Shui," Ranma replied.

"Isn't that the empress that opposed the rule of the Sima clan during the three Kingdoms era?"

'That's Guo Ming, Tendou', read the panda's sign

"Isn't he that immortal sorcerer from that American fighting game Mortal Kombat?" Akane asked.

"That Quan Chi," Shampoo corrected, before realizing she had messed up her count, and resigned to having to start over once again

"Isn't that the once popular British New Wave group that just recently reunited?" Nabiki questioned.

"No that's... that's Wang Chung, and that don't sound anything like Jiang Shi!" Ranma responded, incredulously, earning a smirk and shrug from Nabiki.

"I didn't want to feel left out!"

"So, what is this 'jiang shi'?" Soun asked, bringing everyone back to the subject.

"Well, according to the monks I talked to, it's supposed to be some kind of undead being that lives off the life force of others to survive. They hop around because their feet are bound when they're being transported back to their homes, and they are unable to unbind them... excuse me a sec.. suh, chee, yee, bah, uhr, yee, jyo, sahn..."

"Sahn bai woo shi uhr, Shan bai woo shi sahn, sahn bai... sahn bai..." Shampoo turned and shouted at Ranma in rapid Chinese, tears beginning to stream from her face, before dumping the rice from the cup she was using to contain the counted grains, and started over.

"Heh, I love doing that." Ranma stated more to herself than the others, "And she is compelled to count rice spilled near her."

"Oh, Ranma, that's horrible!" Kasumi proclaimed, before running over to Shampoo, "Here, I'll help you count!" Shampoo looked up, blinked the tears away, and smiled before nodding in gratitude.

"Oh, come on, like I'm supposed to be sympathetic to my attempted murderer."

"Seriously, Ranma, have at least some respect for the dead," Nabiki even demanded, somewhat put off that Ranma found it funny to interrupt someone's pursuit of mathematics.

"What? You can't be... when did you start believing this?"

"I haven't yet, I'm just playing along."

"I think it's the very least we can do to put up Shampoo until her situation is resolved," Soun proclaimed, "considering the poor attitude displayed by one of our other guests."

"Yo, Tendou, that is a soul sucking demon you're inviting into your house..."

"There, Shampoo, all done!" Kasumi proclaimed, "Nabiki, would it be okay if we use your calculator to add up our sums?"

"Sure, sis, I'll just charge the equipment rental fee to Ranma."

"Hey! This ain't my fault!"

"I guess I better go make Shampoo's bed... I SHOULD take Ranma's for giving her so much grief..."

"This ain't fair!"

'Boy, take responsibility for your actions.'

"Stuff it Pops, I am SO in the mood to kick someone's ass, and you're about to prove yours needs a' kick'n!"

"Ranma, I will not tolerate violence within the house!"

"KILL!"

"YOW!" Ranma rolled out of the way of the twin bonboris aimed to squish his head between them like a rotting grape.

"Er, I guess Shampoo's excluded," Soun looked at the blank stares from Akane, Nabiki, and Genma, "Well, I think she's just compelled to attack Ranma, though I'm hardly an expert on demons, spirits, or undead..."

"All done!" Kasumi stated, as she entered with the cup of rice, "Four hundred and seventy two grains."

"You guys managed to do that pretty quickly, wanna help me with the books later on?"

"SHAMPOO, quit it! I said-"

"If you commit one act of violence in this household, I'll throw you out!"

"NO FAIR FOR DOUBLE STANDARDS!"

"Oh my, I guess it's time to make dinner..."

"KILL!!!"

"Oh dear, I'm not sure what prepare for Shampoo...!"


	3. Chapter 3

Neichizuu Jiang Shi

"Mmmm," Genma hummed, taking his time to slurp down the broth saturated udon noodle, "I don't think I have ever had saku yaki quite like yours, Kasumi Dear!"

"Why, thank you, Uncle Genma," Kasumi beamed, "Would you like some more?"

"Yes, please!"

"HEY!" Ranma dove into the tea room, evading a wild swing of a bonbori, leaving it to demolish the entryway frame, "Save some for me, Pop!"

"Boy, all you have to do is sit down and join the rest of us if you're going to eat," the elder Saotome responded with a cheeky grin. Before Ranma could retort, he was forced to jump out of the way of an arrow.

"Damn it, Shampoo! Let me eat before you try to kill me!"

"Oh my, Ranma's so rampageous this evening." Kasumi stated, putting a hand on her cheek and inspecting the damage to the entryway.

"Serves the jerk right if Shampoo chased him all night," Akane insisted, "Seriously, if he would just think about it for a second, all he probably has to do is switch back to a guy!"

"I don't think he's had a second this whole time," Nabiki argued, ignoring Ranma followed by Shampoo swinging a scimitar, as they ran a lap around the tea room table, before disappearing into the hall.

"So let the idiot suffer!" Akane replied, heatedly. She wasn't all that worried about Shampoo catching Ranma; the pigtailed girl seemed to have an uncanny instinct for survival. But in hindsight, she was beginning to realize that if things weren't stopped, peace would be a thing more so of the past.

Having caught the key parts of the conversation, Ranma entered the tea room again, somersaulting over the table, snagging the tea kettle on the pass, and running into the kitchen. Shampoo hopped in, landed on the table, and hopped off after Ranma into the kitchen.

Several moments later, a male Ranma backed out of the kitchen, holding his hands up complacently to a scrutinizing Shampoo, "See? I'm a guy! The girl Ranma ran outside!"

"You... is man." Shampoo stated, still leaning closely into Ranma, while poking him in the chest with her finger, "How you do that?"

"Wha?" Ranma responded, afraid she knew the two were one in the same. "How I do what?"

"Change to man?"

"Hmm, interesting?" Soun mused, "She doesn't seem fooled by the curse."

"Seriously, I'm a guy, Shampoo!" Ranma retorted, fearful of having to continue being chased, "I ain't the redhead chick! So you gotta leave me alone!"

Shampoo pouted cutely, before responding, "Chi same as girl Ranma, yang chi higher than yen chi now, but still same." Shampoo's eyebrows raised, before her eyes narrowed to slits, "You..."

"Looks like the jig is up, Ranma," Nabiki stated, ready for dinner theater, starring Ranma and Shampoo, to resume.

"...is twin, yes?" Shampoo concluded, before hopping back a few steps to fully take in the pigtailed boy.

Everyone else simultaneously picked themselves off the floor. "Yes... that's it," Ranma insisted, before sitting down at his spot at the table, tired from having to outrun Shampoo without retaliation; he found that dealing with the undead Amazon was easier when he could hit her. "Hey! There's nothing left!"

"You snooze, you lose, boy."

"Pops, you greedy-"

Shampoo sat next to Ranma, sagging in her posture. She concluded that Ranma had a twin brother, and managed to elude her while now hiding her chi, or something weird was going on with her nemesis. She wished she could contact her great grandmother for answers, but realized that there would be too much to explain, particularly the death part.

She knew enough of her people's customs and policies to know that if they found out she was now jiang shi, the tribe's spirit hunters would not hesitate to seek her out and destroy her. As it was, she was compelled to kill the pigtailed girl, before she could finally rest, and she felt that nothing should be allowed to interfere with her task beyond even her once living status. Without the ability to seek guidance from her great grandmother, and no one else to help her, Shampoo seriously began to understand her situation.

Akane perked, before turning to Shampoo, and seeing the deceased girl hiccupping, signifying her upcoming sobs, "Shampoo?"

"Shampoo no... no go home anymore. Shampoo... Shampoo no peace until girl Ranma dead. Shampoo... Shampoo... alone..."

"Oh my, you poor dear!" Kasumi gave her sympathy to the girl, wishing there were more she could do without causing intentional harm to her other houseguest.

"Ah," Ranma began to grow uncomfortable with the suddenly depressed undead girl. Even if she was dead, he hated to see her cry, "It's alright, I... you'll get the pigtailed girl another time."

Shampoo attempted to give Ranma an appreciative smile, but it failed to make it to her eyes, "Shampoo tired, go sleep now."

"I'll take you to Akane's room, then," Kasumi offered, before moving to help the girl shakily stand, and then help her up the stairs.

"Does she seem alright to you?" Nabiki enquired, "It's almost like she lost the energy to even go looking for 'girl Ranma'."

"Just like the jerk to break the spirit of a martial artist!" Akane quipped.

"What are you talking about? I didn't break noth'n!"

"You treat us female martial artists with absolutely no respect! It's no wonder she's now depressed!"

"Hey, you ain't much a martial artist in the first place! And what am I supposed to do? Stand still and be her personal sharp weapons storage station?"

"You two..." Soun attempted to chastise, and being completely ignored by the two bickering teens.

* * *

Shampoo sat up, looking around the dark room from the floor she had been laying on. The girl whose room she was sharing was fast asleep, and hopefully a sound sleeper. Quietly, Shampoo stood, being careful not to fall over, and silently hopped to the side of Akane's bed. No, this one wouldn't do, Shampoo decided, before stealthily hopping out of the room, being careful to open the door quietly.

The first room she entered after leaving Akane's was the girl with the short hair, Nabiki if she remembered correctly. Intensely chasing Ranma had made Shampoo tired, and even if she didn't show it, she wasn't sure if she would be capable of doing much else... if she didn't feed soon.

Nabiki's eyes opened, as if she sensed someone had entered her private quarters uninvited, "Who's there?" Before she could sit up, she felt someone's hand brace down on her stomach, keeping her in place. Her eyes widened, when and obviously female someone's lips landed on hers...

* * *

Ranma and his father battled in the air; trading blows while seeming to defy gravity in ways the human body should not be able to do.

"Ha! You're ten years too early if you think you'll best me at that skill level!" Genma taunted, before leaping into the air.

"Your math ain't so hot, Pops, because I think I've been able to best you for over a year now!" Ranma retorted, before launching himself to meet the other Saotome an aerial combat.

"Aren't they impressive, Akane?" Soun enquired to his daughter, as they both watched the heated tradeoff in the air.

"Yeah, I guess," Akane responded, attempting to hide the sharp pang of jealously she was experiencing at observing Ranma's skill level. It wasn't like she couldn't do that, but she never got the teacher Ranma had in his father to do the flashy acrobatic stuff like that.

The fight, as common, concluded with both combatants landing in the fish pond, leaving a panda and redheaded girl in the place of a balding martial arts master and his son.

"Hey Pop, maybe one day we can have a practice where we won't disturb the fish?"

"Gworf"

"RANMA, YOU I KILL!"

'And thus begins the second part of your morning training', Genma's sign read, as Ranma quickly rushed to evade Shampoo's double sword strike.

The pigtailed martial artist was a bit surprised to find a lock of hair fluttering down from her head, when she landed to face the hopping Amazon, "Wha...? How did she even come that close?" Ranma then noticed the way Shampoo was smirking at her; a haughty facial expression that insisted that this chase would be different from the last time. "Uh oh..."

* * *

Kasumi stepped outside, just in time to catch Ranma seriously having to evade Shampoo's strikes, "Shampoo seems so much more active today, don't you think?"

"Well, a good night's rest has always been essential to a martial artist," Soun supposed, "Perhaps tracking the Saotomes throughout China had made her weary?"

"That's some difference!" Akane added, as Ranma just managed to barely parry a thrust to her chest, "Wherever she got the energy from, it's certainly making the difference!"

"Every morning..."

"Oh, good morning Nabiki," Kasumi greeted, as the middle daughter arrived outside.

"Man, I had the weirdest dream last night," Nabiki commented, rubbing her eyes attempting to awaken further. "Not only that, not sure why, but my favorite shorts aren't fitting me!"

"That's what you get for all that snacking you do," Akane assaulted, smirking at her sister.

"No, it's not that, I mean-"

"GANGWAY!"

"DIE, RANMA!"

"They're loose, really loose!"

"Oh Nabiki, are we going to have to go to the counselor again?" Kasumi worriedly asked, concerned for another bulimia issue with her sister.

"Yeah, we already told you the shinjokuu tanorexic look was so not you."

"Shut up, Akane," the middle sister snapped, not in the mood this early in the morning for her sister's jabs.

* * *

Ranma pushed through the back gate, a little tired but none worse the wear. In fact, the smirk on her face wouldn't have said anything about the high speed chase through Nerima, "Yeah, gotta admit, Shampoo, that was a workout!"

Moments after Ranma entered the Tendou grounds, Shampoo almost listlessly hopped through the gate, seeming to barely hold herself up; so many times she had been so close, but girl Ranma had the stamina of the energizer bunny sporting a cold fusion generator.

Kasumi turned to acknowledge the return of the two, before spotting the exhausted undead Amazon, "Oh my, Shampoo!"

Before she could collapse, she found herself supported by the elder Tendou sister. This was insufferable; to be so weak before others, and her sworn enemy was strolling before her like there was no danger whatsoever...

Shampoo decided; damn respecting her hosts, she would finish the imudent girl off before the day was over.

"MMMPH!!"

Ranma turned, and almost fainted with a nosebleed from the sight of Kasumi on the receiving end of a kiss from the undead girl. After several moments, Shampoo pulled away, and glared malice at her enemy, "RANMA, YOU IS DEAD NOW!"

"Ohcrap!" Once again, the chase was on, and double-time.

Kasumi watched them take off, putting her hand to her mouth in shock, "Oh my."

"So sis, considering alternative lifestyle preferences?"

"Oh, Nabiki," Kasumi shook herself out of her stupor, "I was just surprised, that's all, and it felt... weird when she... um..." Kasumi blushed, at the same time her apron slid down her waist to settle onto her hips, "Hmm? That's weird. It was snug just a second ago..." Kasumi pinched her side, before rapidly blinking in surprise.

Nabiki caught on, doing the same to herself, and then remembering her 'dream' from the previous night. "Wait a minute, you mean..."

"Could it?" Kasumi questioned.

"No way!"

* * *

Two more hours of running, and finally Shampoo began to wind down. Leaping onto the roof and knowing Shampoo wouldn't be able to get up there with how tired she seemed to be now, the pigtailed girl decided she had time for respite. "Man, don't know what's gotten into her, but whatever it is, its a hassle!"

"Ranma, shame on you for running from girl like that!"

"Oh, pigboy, it's you," Ranma drolled, "Would you mind, I would like to take a nap before she gets her third wind."

"Oh Ranma, its funny the things you oversee and overhear around here when you're just a little pig," Ryoga responded with a lilt in his voice, "And something else, too. Pigs build up a nice amount of body fat..."

"And what does that have to do with the price of eggs in England?" Ranma asked, not really caring where the conversation was leading to.

"DIE, RANMA!"

"YOW!!!" Ranma rolled away, just before the bonbori mace landed where her head had been.

"Oh," Ryoga began, as he watched his rival leap off the roof, hopping girl following after her, "I was just thinking of how fit I'm feeling now..."

This wasn't good. The longer this was going, the more tired Ranma was getting. On the other hand, the white haired girl seemed to be feeling more powerful than he had ever met her to be. "Cripes, Shampoo, can you just give me a break?"

"No rest for the wicked, boy!" Genma stated, while flexing with his shirt off, "Hey, Tendou, looking good!"

"Same to you, Saotome!" Soun complimented in kind, as they both postured in their now fat free and muscularly cut figures, "Hadn't looked this good since the days under the master!"

Ranma barely managed to keep ahead of Shampoo, as they both leapt over Akane.

"Hey! Do you mind?" Akane bellowed after the two, before reclining back into her lawn chair. Honestly, here she was sunning her now absolutely toned body in a two piece she would never have caught herself wearing before, and Ranma didn't have the dignity to stay out of her sun.

"Alright Shampoo, you can't keep this up forever!" Ranma challenged, efficiently dodging each attempt on her life.

Shampoo, on any other occasion, would have been inclined to agree. They passed by Nabiki, allowing Shampoo to pause briefly, grab the chubby guy standing next to the middle Tendou sister's cheeks, and land a deep kiss on his lips. After she was done, the recharged Amazon renewed her task, "RANMA, IS YOU I KILL!!!"

"That'll be four thousand yen, please!" Nabiki demanded, before taking the money, and ushering the next person in line to stand next to her... the next person in a line that wrapped around the Tendou home.

"Shampoo kill Ranma for sure this time!" the white haired girl insisted, madly hopping after the redhead along the stone walls that surrounded the Tendou household.

* * *

You turn Shampoo into undead fat farm...

Well, that's the most helpful I've ever seen you, sugar. You know, though, that Shampoo would come in handy for this bit of baby fat that just won't go away.

That no baby fat, that just fat, baby.

Why you...

As much as I wanna watch this catfight, I got Virtua Fighter 5 Online to indulge in, Happy Halloween!

Hey, what happened to that epic fight scene you prom-

I said HAPPY HALLOWEEN.


End file.
